5 Ways to Improve the Security of Your Data
Just as the world of cybersecurity is on the march, technological advances are attracting more and more hackers and cybercriminals looking for security vulnerabilities to exploit to seize your data. Internet users and businesses are worried about the steady rise in the number of cyber security attacks.
The onslaught of WannaCry ransomware illustrates the growing scale of these types of attacks – WannaCry is one of the largest in recent years both in terms of its size and the number of companies affected around the world. Hence the question: “How the small and large companies have been affected by this attack?” Real awareness is emerging about the importance of strengthening security measures. It’s not just about protecting our data, but protecting the infrastructure of our businesses as well.
Limit access to data
Most companies grant privileged access to certain employees and internal employees to access their sensitive data. Do you know who in your company has access to sensitive customer data? Can you identify everyone’s access rights? The majority of executives are unaware of who has access to which data and for what purpose – which represents a huge risk of loss, theft, and hacking of your data.
It is important for companies to limit access to their data. They must determine the data to which an employee can access and ensure that they can only access the bare necessities. Applying these restrictions would allow businesses to manage their data more efficiently and protect themselves from data theft or loss.
According to Dricks, CEO of Bomgar, in the face of large-scale data breaches – including the hacking of privileged login and access credentials – organizations must control, manage, and monitor privileged access to their network to mitigate this risk. According to the findings of this report, many companies are unable to properly manage the risks associated with privileged access. In-house violations, whether malicious or unintentional, can go unnoticed for weeks, months, or years, with devastating consequences for businesses.
Identify sensitive data
Companies need to know where their strategic data and sensitive information is. This allows them to rely on accurate information to allocate additional resources to protect the most sensitive and critical resources for them.
While sensitive data should only account for between 5% and 10% of your company’s total data volume, the slightest violation of these types of data can have huge repercussions in terms of image and revenue. But let’s go back to access management and access rights. Sensitive data should ideally be subject to more stringent safeguards than other corporate data.
Plan your data security policy upstream
Let’s now look at the actions and processes that need to be put in place to limit cyberattacks. We will first list the measures and rules to be implemented to ensure data security. Thus, with this type of plan, the company can intervene more quickly in case of critical problem and incident. The rules allow immediate action to prevent the most devastating consequences of a cyberattack.
Access management and access rights make it easy to identify your employees’ access settings so you can spot potentially compromised user accounts. Never forget that rules and security plans will only be effective at the height of their last revision. Technologies, industry regulations and good practices are constantly changing. A person responsible for these rules and processes is always looking for new ways to update them to ensure their relevance.
Use strong and distinct passwords for each department
Sensitive business data must be locked and protected by strong passwords. It is essential to reinforce the passwords to protect against the tools used to update the password – tools that are also easily available on the market. A strong password will combine multiple characters, lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
It is also dangerous to use the same passwords for multiple accesses and programs. Indeed, once your password is hacked, hackers will rush to reuse it on your other user accounts.
Companies must ensure that there is a unique password for each employee and each department. To simplify the task, companies will be able to use password management tools. They will also ensure that all of their employees are properly trained in data security and receive advice on the use and creation of passwords.
It is also recommended to set up, whenever possible, a multi-factor authentication system. Each additional step in the password login process is one more step for hackers – further complicating hacking. Biometrics, sending notifications on smartphones, authentication on smartcards and other tokens are examples of successful multi-factor authentication.
Update and back up your data regularly
Security checks and regular data backups are the last key security measures to protect data. Thus, in case of attack or impromptu data breach, the company will appreciate having saved its data. For the sustainability of your business, make a habit of performing manual or automatic data backups weekly or daily.
To properly protect your data, your software must be regularly updated and you must use good antivirus software. Your IT department needs to be up-to-date and proactive. Hire reliable and competent people to carry out their mission seriously.
Conclusion
If it is difficult for a company to succeed, developing in the long term is even more difficult. In a time of heightened cybersecurity risk, security tools and enhanced privacy protections are more than ever needed to protect your most valuable assets – your data.
